Direction finder apparatus



arch 7, 1933. LEE 1 1,900,292

DIRECTION F INDER APPARATUS Filed April 20, 1929 V M mw INVENTOR AUGUST L EI BY 7 I I f WW ATTORNEY a. I answer LEIB, OEZZBERLIN, GER NY; assreno a 'ro TELEFUNKEN einsntLscnnnrjrtfin 9 goniometers are concerned.

Patented Mar. 7, 1933 ,nnen'rnosn rannenarnrn 1a. 355., or 'nmanm, GER-MANY, A ooBroRA'rIoNor' ninncrrolv a rman APPARATUS Application filed April 20, 1929, Seria1 K 135 6352, and in Germany May a 1 928 Radio direction finders of the kind heretofore used on sea and aircraft are provided with directional antennaeor goniometers whose-supports or bearings are built station ary in the craft orvessel. 7 This often involves the disadvantage that thedirectional part of the goniometeri as the ship'is turned in rough weather or during changes in the course of the vessel, must be re-adjusted in the direction of bearings"against the sense.

of turning of the vessel. This readjustment is time-consuming and diflicult especially where accurate and sensitive rotary-coil Th s drawback obviated according 'to the present invention by that the directional antenna or the goniometric partsof the driving means are so coupled with a compass that the directional part of the goniometenonce set to the proper bearings, will'be automath cally retained in this proper direction by action of the compass One exemplification of the invention" explained in'more detail in what foll-ows by reference to the accompanying drawing, in which the singlefigure shows an embodiment of my invention. I 7 7 Referring to the drawing, 1 denotes acylindrical member terminating at one end in l a base. member adapted to be rigidly sup ported on the ships structure and at the other end in a scale member 10' which may carry indicating lines or markings as for instance lines denoting the ships ,lubber line 1 and a line at right angles to the-first namedline. Mounted for rotation on the cylindrical portion of base member l is a sleeve 2 which terminates at one end in gearing 7 means wvherebyit maybe driven andat the other end in a compass card 9 on which the various 'poin'tsofthe compass are placed. The'memher 2 is adaptedto be drivenin synchronism with a master compass, as for instance the ships master compass through gearing means driven by an electric motor 3 which in turn is driven in synchronism with thcf master compass. .In' this manner the compass card 9 is caused to continuously follow the movements of the pointer .on the .main .master compass. The means for support the member 4; is a pointerS 'which'on simul taneous rotation of 4 and2 moves relative tothe indicator surface 10 0nly and on ro tation of 4 relative to 2 moves with respect -to' 10 and also with respect to compass card '9." While the member l has been shown as 1 being manually rotatable by hand-wheel=517 h it will be understood that-rotation thereof 7 1 maybe effected by means ofa rope drive or a a'nyother well known drive.-iFurthernio're,' .5 it "will be u derstoodthat therelativeilposi r 'tion ofgfthe various. elements in tlieflappawg ratus im ay bee changed. without departing it m the scope'of'the invention sincethe;

poses of illustration.

ing the radio comp ass will now be described. The support for the radio compass includes rotatedrelativ'e to the member 2 when'desired, the drive between the member 4 and v the member 2 is effected through ayielding a member 4 mountedforrotation on the memher 9. In order'that' the member twill normally rotate with the member 2 but maybe l member 4. The radio compass, that is, the" V directive aerial ismounted on a shaftfi which isinturn supported 'by a fork member? which is in turn rigidly supported as shown.

in'openings'in the member-4t. ,Mounted on present form has been shown merely for puril 2 In orderto prevent the leads between the directive aerial-and the receiver from being twisted'ofl due to continuous rotations of the shaft'fi' stop members 11 and 12 integral with base land member l respectively cooperate with the extensionon a collar 13 rotatably supported. on the member in a well known i'm'anner'to prevent the shaftfi and member l from being rotated v,m oretlian360 degrees in one direction: This in turn prevents {the leads between the directional.aerialandthe receiver from being disrupted; The; stopmember .11 and-collar 13, however, '-do"not prevent the compass card 9 from-being mainf V tainedat alltimes in a: positionisimilar to the position of'the main magnetie cornpassn ,e e

since as pointed out above the member 4 is driven by means of the member 2 through a yielding friction drive.

In operation, the radio compass is moved into a position pointing toward the stations to which it is tuned. If the ship deviates from its course in any direction, the magnetic compass will always swing to a position pointing towardthe north pole. The compass card 9 being driven in synchronism therewith will likewise take up a similar position, that is, maintain its pointing position at all times. Since the radio compass is normallydriven by means of the member 52 which drives the compass card 9, the radio compass will likewise be maintained in the position or substantially in the position in which it is last manually placed, i. e; pointing toward the sending station; Or in other words, the loop antenna of the radio compass will be kept at substantially a constant angular relation with the direction of the transmitting beacon, providing the relative distance between the receiving station or vessel and the transmitting beacon is comparatively great and the travel of the receiving station comparatively normal. If, however, the distance between the receiving station on the vessel and the transmitting beacon on the shore is relatively small, compared with the travel of the vessel, then the angular relation between the transmitting beacon and the radio compass loop will not remain constant. In operation. therefore, after the radio compass is manually positioned to point towards the station to be received, it will be maintained substantially in such position until moved to another position manually.

The advantage in this is that it is not necessary for the operator to be continuously rotating the radio compass as the ship is swung olf lts normal course since it IS automatically maintained in position.

parting to said radio compass movements equal to the movements of said magnetic compass.

2. A radio direction finder for marine and aircraft use comprising a radio loop aerial motmted for rotation, a master compass arranged to operate a compass scale, said radio loop aerial being mounted adjustably with respect to saidcompass scale, and means for coupling said master compass with said radio loop aerial for simultaneously rotating said loop aerial so that the loop aerial will automatically be set to receive a certain transmitter once said loop aerialis adjusted to said transmitter.

3. Directional finding apparatus for use on marinev and aircraft which carry a master compass or equivalent instrument, said apparatus comprising a radio compass having a loop aerial, a pointer rotatable directly with said loop aerial, a radio compass scale, means for causing said radio compass scale to assume positions identical with the position taken by said master compass, and coupling means between said radio compass scale for simultaneously moving said loop with said radio compass scale and said master compass.

4. A directive radiant energy responsive means comprising a loop aerial mounted for rotation,a mastercompass arranged to operate a compassscale, engaging means with said master compass so that there is direct AUGUST LEIB- correct readings of direction, indeed, it would be necessary first to ascertain the necessary corrections and to take them into account in making readings. In order to save this loss of time, it is advisable to use an outfit as here disclosed always in combination with a compensating device adapted to correct or eliminate such deviations in the directional beam as are occasioned by the vessel. It is then possible to read directly with pointer 8 upon the compass scale 9 the proper bearings, and upon ship dial or scale 10 the correct ship goniometer indications.

I claim: w

1. Directional finding apparatus for ma rine and aircraft including, a radio compass, a magnetic compass, and means actuated by said magnetic compass for automatically im- 

